Sweet Search
by undercoverfeline
Summary: All good things come to an end. Hilda and Mogar had a falling out. Their small pack is falling apart. Ash and Rusty are trying their best to hold everyone together. And Mogar is tearing the city apart trying to find something that's been taken away from him. Now the entire pack is looking for their alpha. Will they make it in time?
1. chapter 1

So today may not have been her best day. Her head was a little fuzzy, vision wasn't entirely focused, and her stomach threatened to eject the coffee and danish she had forced down before heading to work. But the fuzzy vision might be from the dark room she had woken up to.

"Please just let it be a hangover."

"So you finally decide to grace us with your presence."

"Oh dear god." She groaned as she pushed herself up. "What the fuck do you want?"

A deep chuckle resounded through the dark room. "You really don't know do you?" a light clicked on above her head expanding what little she had been able to see of the shadowy room. "For years now X-Ray and Vav have been a thorn in our side." The tap of way too fancy to be necessary shoes echoed by, a dark form just on the edges of her vision.

"Join the club."

Another chuckle, this one darker, more like something reminiscent of the Mad King. "They were a thorn, but they were contained. We could remove them and let them continue running around -completely oblivious- again and again." The clicks stop, the dark form is too far back in the shadows. "And then they met you."

"So now you have more than one thorn? Or did it just get bigger?"

"A thorn that could not be dislodged." The clicks start again, louder, faster.

"Answering the question by ignoring it, classic."

"Then your inebriated spymaster joined the ranks, and that insufferable journalist." hot annoyance, burning anger building beneath his words.

"So this is about getting to the others huh?" She can see a bit more clearly, her glasses weren't knocked too far away. Her hands are now working on her wrists, fiddling with the cuffs and chains. "Take out the 'weak link' and it all comes crumbling down?"

A door creaks. "Oh this be about more than just yer troublesome crew girly."

"Fuck."

"Aye, it be me, the Corpirate, back to take what be rightfully mine."

She sighs heavily. "How are you even here? You fell off the damn building."

"Twas the very instrument that brought my downfall as saved me life." softer clicks, his voice doesn't echo as much, he's somewhere to her left.

"The Slo Mo hands."

"Aye, the Slo Mo hands."

"Sir, should we begin the interrogation?"

"Ye be right, time to see just what this wench knows." he steps just into the light in front of her, his monocle glinting. "Time to sing little siren," he laughs as he turns back to the door. "Bring us those 'heroes' of yers."

"If ye don't bring me results by this time tomorrow, ye scurvy self, and yer scurvy crew twill all be walking the plank to Davy Jones' locker!" ugh, there came another headache.

"Sirs, she's coming to." she lifts one of her still shackled hands to her head and stiffens at the shortness of the hair framing her face.

"Really? The hair guys?" she slowly moves to an upright position. Ignoring the smells and tackiness under her hands she takes a deep breath and opens her eyes. "You couldn't have, I don't know: tried psychological torture while I was awake?" she's not sure if the look on their faces is controlled shock or annoyance. Seems they took her glasses this time. "Or at least chosen one that would work."

The Corpirate turns to look at a slightly cowering man in a lab coat. "She was asleep the entire time?"

"W-well, we hoped that if she woke in a physically weakened state, w-with what m-many have said to be one of her best f-features ruined... and without complete sight...Then she m-might be easier t-to m-m-manipulate into giving us inform-mation."

"Well that didn't work now did it doctor?"

"And really? Insults when I already know I look like this? Please." she rolls her eyes and brushes her hands on her jeans. "It's hair, it grows back. You want to mess with me, take my finger, hands, eyes. Things that affect my actual life." Three pairs of eyes are on her and she ignores them in favor of trying her best to straighten out her hair and dirty shirt.

"Are ye sure ye haven't done anythin' else to the wench afore I arrived?"

"N-no sir… she's just," the man makes a lost flailing motion in her direction with one hand, the other gripping his clipboard so tight his knuckles have gone white.

His assistant at the button covered control panel pipes up, "She may be more resilient than we initially thought." Hilda scoffs and shifts into a more comfortable position.

"Have you seen the people I work with?"

"Oh aye," the Corpirate begins pacing about her again. "Yer colored henchmen. The brainless wonders."

"Oh yeah, them too." she smirks, "But, not that brainless." The steps slow, "They got me away from you well enough."

"Aye that they did, but what of after?"

"Excuse me?"

"Yer henchmen got you out, then they brought you right back." The clicking has stopped… again. What was with these people and inconsistent pacing? "Straight into my clutches once again."

"Uh, not into your clutches. Onto your roof, where we whooped your ass."

"We?" a beat, two, three.

"Yeah, we. It was a group effort."

"Like the battle with the Mad King?"

"Well, not exactly. I hadn't made the ORF suit yet."

"And yet they still managed to succeed without yer help." something rises at that. Something old and ugly and way too familiar.

"They had my tech."

"Aye, but they found you without it as well."

"That's just cause… they had… Rusty…" the labcoat man and his assistant share a glance.

"Yes, my old friend. And how is that old scallywag doing?" she can see his monocle glinting in the shadows. "His web of informants and spies more widespread than ever? His reach infecting every level of this city's infrastructure? A finger in every pot?" he chuckles hoarsely. "They won't be needin ye fer much longer." she growls at him. Actually growls.

"Fuck off."

"Oh, the little wolf is coming out to play." She's pulling at her chains, teeth bared. He moves closer. Bending low enough she's just below eye level. "Seems like the bear be gettin to ye."

"You leave him out of this."

"I wonder why he hasn't come for you yet. Yer swashbuckling knight in leather armor."

Her grin is close to feral she knows, and she hopes it works. "With me gone, he's the planner now. He and Rusty are going to bust your plan wide open."

"Buahahaha!" He laughs, arching back from her. "We'll see little siren." He fades into the shadows and the clicks move away from her. "We shall surely see, yarr."

It may not be what he was hoping for, but he smirks at the soft sniffles that come from behind him as he walks away.


	2. The Search Begins

If there was one thing Vietnam taught him, it was alcohol fixed everything and never get attached to anyone. But he never was one to listen to teacher and who gave a fuck about numbers?

"Where is she!?" The morning ritual was already shot to hell but it was still too early for this. There wasn't much left of the feeling of peace and family he had let himself get used to in this house. And it just made it a little worse when Mogar burst into the room, after his latest week going AWOL, sword strapped to his back and bags under his eyes yelling at them all. His mouth twisted in distaste as he took a sip of his plain black coffee.

"Wot are you goin on about mate?" it didn't worry him at all that Vav's voice was getting harder and sharper every time he saw him. Or that X-Ray was too quiet compared to the ruckus he had made the first few days Hilda didn't come home. That Ash was always tired and listless as she tried to step up and fill the void as group mom. The sound of sparring or roughhousing didn't fill the house when he walk through the door anymore. Ash and Vav seemed to be back to square one. That the head of the table was empty. It didn't bother him at all.

Mogar's scowl deepens and he moves into the room, sniffing along the way. "She is missing, Mogar cannot find her scent." his cracking voice and the broken look on his face doesn't move something in him. And the way the usually stoic warrior holds her unused mug isn't endearing in how pathetic it is. Mogar leans back against a wall and slides down, resting his head between where his arms laid across his knees. "He promised to protect her."

"Oh sweetie." Ash gets up and kneels next to him, petting his curls and muttering empty assurances. "Your mother is fi-"

"Mogar knows his mother is fine!" the bearman snarls and Ash falls back as his head shoots up. "He cannot find Hilda." he's up and pacing. His fingers twitch like they're expecting to flex around a sword hilt.

"Calm down buddy," Rusty slurs in his new spot across from Hilda's chair… Mogar's place. "Hilda's a big girl, and smart too, she can take care of herself."

"Yeah mate," He had really hoped Vav would just let him handle this. "Besides, you're the one as set her off!" Mogar stops his pacing to glare at the Brit. "Ev'rythin was right dandy till you showed up!" Gavin is standing now. And he thought X-Ray was the one with a killer glare.

"Va-Gavin…"

"No Ash, it's true. We were doing fine till Mogar came and botched it all up."

"It's not his fault Gavin!"

"It's none of our faults." Ray's voice isn't rough and grumbling or high and complaining. It's cold and small and broken and makes Rusty almost want to go over to the kid and hug him. "I-if Hilda wanted to leave us, there wasn't anything we could do." there are silent tear tracks streaking down his face. "We loved her and she just didn't love us back."

That did it. Rusty slams his mug down on the table. "Now you shut the fuck up. She loves you boys like nothin else kid." Ray looks up at him with bloodshot eyes and Mogar glares. "She loves all of us, else she wouldn't take care of us the way she does." his voice doesn't crack the tiniest bit.

"But she left us." now Gavin is getting weepy. "She left us and hasn't called, didn't leave a note, nothin. She even took ORF."

"How long?" Rusty rolls his eyes at the frantic warrior. "How long since she left the den?"

"About a month." Ash hasn't moved from where she had kneeled next to Mogar.

He sighs at Mogar's confused look. "Since the moon waned." Mogar's eyes widen.

"And no one has searched for her?"

"Well what about you, ya mong?" Gavin's glare is back full force. "You had a chance to go after her."

"Mogar tried. She would not listen." He's standing still now, fists clenched at his sides. "She would not listen and now she is gone!"

"So we have established that she is in fact missing." Rusty sighs, "Then freaking out isn't going to help us find her."

Mogar nods and walks over to the table, hovering behind Hilda's usual seat. He clenches his jaw and Rusty feels a little bad for the guy as he squeezes his eyes shut and slowly pulls out the chair and sits down. Gavin's glare is a little softer as he looks about the table. Ray's eyes are a little harder when he nods at Mogar's worried look. And Ash is sending bots off after files and papers as she sits next to Gavin.

"What?" Mogar's voice wavers a little at the four sets of eyes staring at him.

"This is your show man. How do we find her?" Rusty had to admire the way he steels himself and begins rummaging through the papers Ash is shoving at him. The way he is able to keep the boys on task while processing what they're able to come up with. And he can't help the ache in his chest when he sees the way he looks at the three between them with the same resigned affection Hilda would. Yeah, they had lost their alpha, but this one would stop at nothing to get her back to them.

And as he reaches into the pile and starts flipping through files and plans and contacts he misses the grateful smile and sad eyes cast his way from across the table.


	3. Change In Tactics

Being held captive wasn't quite as bad as she had been prepared for. There wasn't any real torture other than some what little shocks the skittish back-alley doctor had had the guts to do at the beginning. His assistants made up for it. They taunted her and told her snippets of plans and plots that her family hadn't been able to stop or catch on to yet. But even they had a hard time with her. She just didn't give a shit. The food wasn't too bad either. Just kind of bland and a little lumpy.

"I don't want excuses." Fancyfeet was angry. "I want results. Or the boss isn't happy. And if the boss isn't happy, I'm really not happy."

"We-we're doing our best sir."

"Do better." The clicking heels almost sound angry as he storms away. The door slams shut. She smirks.

"Problem there doc?" Her voice is weak and raspy, they barely gave her enough water to survive.

"Oh, quiet you." His tone is sharp for him and a familiar electric current courses through her. "I need information miss Hilda, and you are going to give it to me." The jolt is a little stronger this time. "I need the access codes to Monarch Labs."

She grits her teeth and takes a deep breath. "Rusty: urine and sadness, whiskey, Vietnam, information, beta." One shock. "X-Ray: green one, angry hero, cook, glasses, warrior, my idiot, pack." Two shock. "Vav: blue one, British, hero, coffee maker, warrior, my idiot, pack." Three shock. She tasted blood pooling on her tongue.

"Now why don't you make this easy and give me something we don't have? Like the location of your base."

"A-ash: journalist, excitable female, nosy one, civilian, pack." Four. "Pack: protectors of Achievement City, we defeated the Corpira- Aaaagghhh!" Five shock. God, it hurt to breath.

"What are the codes to your labs?"

"We defeated the Corpirate," Six shock. "Dethroned the Mad King," Seven shock. Her vision was going, everything ached down to her bones. "And broke his crown!" Eight shock. She smirked… or tried to. She wasn't sure how effective it was seeing as she couldn't even wiggle her fingers properly anymore. "Any more?" Pain. White sparks behind her eyes, body seizing up again and again and again and again.

"How do we destroy them?"

"Hilda: ponytail lady, metal woman, warrior, scientist, alpha." She cackled as her muscles jumped and knotted beneath her skin. "Mogar: Bearman, mama's boy, warrior, guardian, alpha." Her cackles and whimpers echoed above the sparks and popping of electricity. "He's coming. And you fuckers better stay out of his way."

She screams and cries and writhes on the floor. The shackles dig into her wrists and she's vaguely aware of the small trails of blood running down her arms. Everything blurs and melds together.

"She's far more resilient than we initially thought sir."

"Argh, I can see that." The voices are distant and echoey. "Drug the lasd and stick her in the simulator."

"B-but sir, it's st-still untested!"

"Then let this be your test." Fancyfeet's voice is smug. She's able to force her eyes open as someone stretches out her arm, lining up a needle.

"Fuck off." The Corpirate laughs.

"Pretty AND brave. Aye, tis not hard to see the allure."

"Really sir?" she has to laugh. "See, even she agrees with me."

"Oh aye, she herself does not see her own genius or worth." The Corpirate has started moving to the door. "But that is usually the case of sidekicks." The door slams behind him and his snickering golden haired yes-man.

"Sidekick or not," her voice is weak and raspy as she feels her control over her own body slipping. "I'm going to fucking destroy him and his little bitch."


End file.
